safety-oriented rail car design

ABSTRACT

The proposed invention is a rail car design intended to reduce the impact of rail accidents by having 135 degree and 45 degree alignment of the front end and back end of the cars with respect to the rail. There is also crush zone provided at these angles, which can crush as an impact of a collision, reducing the effect on the rest of the train. In severe cases, the crush zone can derail the car to deflect the damaging waves. The points of contact of the cars, and the car and engine, where the impact is high, are provided with buffer to minimize the damage.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a rail-car design, which places a premium onsafety. Collisions are a reality in rail transport and circumventingthese would be enabled by the design proposed in the present invention.

DISCUSSION OF PRIOR ART

Passenger rail cars built with conventional design metrics haveapproximately 800,000 lbs of minimum static-end strength. Consequently,a passenger rail car is able to support a longitudinal staticcompressive load equaling the same amount, when applied at the buffstops, without permanent deformation. Under dynamic loading conditions,a force of approximately 1.5 million pounds is required to cause thedraft sill to buckle. Once the draft sill buckles in collision, thecrushing action continues with a much-reduced force. Generally speaking,the point of impact absorbs the greatest amount of force, thereby beingrendered the most damaged. The alternative to conventional designs aredesigns adhering to crash energy management (CEM), wherein occupiedareas of the passenger car are better protected by distributing thecrush to the ends of cars. Cars designed with CEM have several zonescausing an accumulation of the crushing force at the ends of the cars.These crush zones are designed to crush the car by absorbing most of theforce upfront, at the ends of the cars. This distribution of absorptionhelps in keeping the cars inline, rather than buckling laterally orvertically. Large amplitude buckling might cause more injury topassengers. The concept of CEM itself is not novel. During the 90s, theFrench and the British utilized this concept [1,2,3]. Trains in mostparts of the world now share the railway lines with much heavier freighttrains, cargo trains etc. This mix of traffic causes a new scenario andrequires improved designs for efficient collision management.

KR20040037741 discloses a Safety device in getting off/on for electricrail car wherein passengers are protected from accidents by means ofthis device, which provides a safety step to passengers. KR20030008900proposes a Safety footboard for electric rail car, which also provides asimilar safety feature by means of a safety step. MXPA05002137 proposesa Rail car door closer which controls the speeds at which the rail cardoors close, in order to prevent accidents. JP2003276602 proposes aDamper device between car bodies for railroad vehicle wherein thelateral displacement of rail car bodies are dampened by means of thisdevice. This could foresee its application in collision prevention orcontrol, however, the device of this invention uses fluid mechanics toachieve its objective. RU2218286 discloses the Front section of a railcar comprising longitudinal beams, coupler gear holders and bufferheads. The section is designed to maximize the safety of the vehicle, bymeans of reinforced plates replete with stiffeners to provide structuralrobustness in the case of an accident. JP3197270 proposes an Attachmentstructure of railway car with one or more bumper fenders duplicated in avehicle, preventing collision damage.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The statistics of rail-car accidents are a surprisingly global one,including several incidents in India, the Hinton rail accident in Canadaetc. Preventing these accidents includes ensuring that the impact due tothe train colliding with any other structure, be dealt with bystructural means. The present invention proposes a rail car designed tolimit the damage due to collision with other bodies. The rail car of thepresent invention has an implicit crush zone, in the unit containing theengine of the rail car, wherein the impact of the collision is absorbedand stopped. This crush zone has several structural features, whichprovide safety to the passengers riding the rail car, including acollapsible design and a 135-degree orientation with the angle of therail, in order to minimize damage. In addition to the unit where theengine is housed having this implicit crush zone, there is a specificstructural means between the other rail cars, to reduce the collisionimpact. Thus, two structural features, the crush-zone in the unitcontaining the engine and the inter-rail-car collision impact absorptionmeans, act in conjunction to provide the safety features of the presentinvention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows the latitudinal profile of the unit containing the engine.

FIG. 2 shows the side-view of the unit containing the engine.

FIG. 3 shows the latitudinal profile of the unit, containing the enginepost-crash.

FIG. 4 illustrates the structural design of the inter-connection betweenall rail cars.

FIG. 5 shows the side-view of the interconnection between rail cars,indicating where the crush-absorption zones are.

FIG. 6 shows the side-view of the entire train, including the connectionmechanism.

FIG. 7 illustrates the direction in which the collision impact travelsamongst the units containing the engines, when two trains have a head-oncollision.

FIG. 8 shows the direction in which the collision impact travels amongstthe crush-zones in the interconnection structure between cars.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows the latitudinal profile of the unit containing the engine1, with an explicit, asymmetric crush-zone 4. The anterior of the unitcontaining the engine is at a 135-degree angle to the rail, in order toefficiently absorb shock. This layout reduces the collision impact onthis and other rail cars that form the entire train. The crush-zone 4 ofthe engine will buckle, when the engine is in a collision and in severecases, the crush-zone 4 is instrumental in derailing the engine,simultaneously deflecting the shock waves of the collision beingtransmitted to the rest of the train. FIG. 2 shows the side-view of theunit containing the engine 2 wherein the crush zone 5 mitigates theimpact of a collision. FIG. 3 shows the latitudinal profile of the unit,containing the engine post-crash. As seen in this figure, the crash hasits impact distributed across the points where the 45 degree 6 angledend absorbs most of the impact. The 135-degree 3 angled end also absorbsthe impact, post-crash. FIG. 4 illustrates the structural design of theinter-connection between all rail cars. FIG. 5 shows the side-view ofthe interconnection between rail cars, indicating where thecrush-absorption zones are. The crush zone is asymmetrically placedwhere the 135 degree 9 angled end alternates with the 45 degree 10angled end, across subsequently placed rail-cars. The ridge along thewidth at the back of one car fits into the groove formed along the widthof the other car. The buffer mechanism provided along this structureabsorbs the vibrations. FIG. 6 shows the side-view of the entire train,including the connection mechanism. FIG. 7 illustrates the direction inwhich the collision impact travels amongst the units containing theengines, when two trains have a head-on collision. The crush-zones onthe two colliding engines 11, 12 have the crush zones 13, 14 collapseand deflect away the shock waves 15, 16. Since the crush-zone has anasymmetric design with the 135 and 45-degree angles, as shown in FIG. 1,the rest of the train does not absorb the impact of the collision. Thisdeflection 15, 16 of the impact, keeps the rest of the train take inonly a fraction of the entire force of collision.

Furthermore, the crush zone can be reconstructed more easily than anyother part of engine, which would have been damaged in absence of thecrush zone. FIG. 8 shows the direction in which the collision impacttravels amongst the crush-zones in the interconnection structure betweencars. Once again, the interconnected cars 17, 18, have their crush-zones19, 20 deflect the impact 21, 22 away from the main body of the cars.

1. A collision impact resistant rail car design for use in trains havinga plurality of rail car units comprising: a. An engine unit, whoseanterior side has an asymmetric crush-zone, to deflect the impact of acollision away from the main body of the car containing the engine andthe rest of the train; and b. Rail car units having an interconnectionmechanism with a built-in, asymmetrical crush-zone, to deflect theimpact of a collision away from the main body of the units, safeguardingthe contents of the car.
 2. A collision impact resistant rail car ofclaim 1 wherein the crush-zone is aligned at a 135-degree angle to therails on which the train is moving.
 3. A collision impact resistant railcar of claim 1 wherein the crush-zone has an asymmetric design with oneend aligning at 135 degrees to the rail and the other end aligning at 45degrees to the rail.
 4. A collision impact resistant rail car of claim 1wherein the crush-zones are present in the interconnection between railcars such that the angles alternate amongst subsequent cars.
 5. Acollision impact resistant rail car of claim 1 wherein the crush-zoneabsorbs and deflects the impact of the collision away from the body ofthe car.
 6. A collision impact resistant rail car of claim 1 wherein thecrush-zone buckles upon impact.
 7. A collision impact resistant rail carof claim 1 wherein the crush-zone de-rails the car upon impact.
 8. Acollision impact resistant rail car of claim 1 wherein the crush-zoneabsorbs the majority of the collision, rendering it the only portion ofthe car requiring re-construction, after impact.